Factionating the Abaddon

[Satoshi]

But isn't Shar in more complex political relationships with Mask and Cyric?
Since she basically eats the former after calling him her son, and is trying to get the latter access to the Shadow-Weave.

And sort of dedicated to nihilism and anarchy, promoting the destruction of everything. But Shar is a puppet-master, and very subtle. She can be working with someone while plotting their destruction several moves down the chessboard, and few deities are old and careful enough to keep pace with her.

[ThePaganKing]

I agree with Satosi, we should go forward and not back. Having lived and rp'd through the dark advent times, I think it best to move forward and if they are consolidating factions, then it doesn't make sense to make new factions or sub factions.

[Cornuto]

http://qkme.me/3os277

[Kaybrie]

The great thing about a setting with such widely varied countries/regions and 100+ deities, with dozens of personal racial deities often overlapping with common pantheon counterparts, is that essentially everyone can play whatever they want and be lore-savvy in one way or the other. Down to things like good aligned Drow or even Undead.

The horrible thing about it is that, inevitably the staff of any NWN2 server needs to draw a line on what content they can feasibly provide solid content for. DM's in the past have been very inclusive and happy to work with players who willingly compromise with them to work forward.

Example (yay hubris); Anasath created Lathanderite, no Lathanderite faction, Anasath joins Arbiters Alliance to work with the existing factions as a semi-detached party. Gains rep, recognizable authority, still advances normally. Slightly more limited store, recognized by staff on request and rewarded items accordingly in the aftermath of events.

What the Sharrans and Cyrists can take away from this; Black Hand.

No seriously; Black Hand.

You didn't hear me correctly? Allow me to repeat; Black Hand.

"But Kasso", you might say, the Black Hand is comprised entirely of Banites, Colibrites and Myrkulites, a Cyrist would never be accepted anywhere near them!

I'm glad you said that you scrappy player, and allow me to explain!

The Black Hand recognizes Cyric as the single greatest threat to its dominion, more then the Triad, more then Lathander, more then Ao. Cyric is the single most destructive, completely unleashed asshole that the forgotten realms has, and probably the single most hated villain for repeatedly killing really cool gods, or being the jackass pulling the strings behind really terrible plots.

Back on topic! A Cyrist would have every reason to infiltrate the Black Hand as a Banite and even go so far as to openly worship Bane to keep his cover. AND SCREW THEM OR ANYONE ELSE THEY CAN FROM WITHIN.

"But Kasso, aren't Cyric and Bane enemies?"

Yes they are! They represent the far flung axis of Chaotic and Lawful badguys; The Joker and Lex Luthor, Kefka and Golbez, Dr Gero and Majin Buu. The more lawfully inclined of any of these comparisons would never, ever dream of working with the other simply because they would represent a horrifyingly real liability that could explode all over their hard work at any moment. The Chaotic one though... Would use the other like a red headed stepchild, leaving them bewildered and naked without even saying goodbye or kissing them goodnight.

Cyric and Shar both are deities that thrive off using other gods/factions/mortals/monsters to do their dirty work and profiting from it. Their lore is tantamount to them and their worshipers doing this, they're both insanely powerful, insanely well known deities with tiny churches. So I say; Why should these churches get a faction? If played properly, they should be sticking their willies into the proverbial ear of every other faction, and causing havoc and chaos wherever they go.

"But Kasso, my character might get permakilled this way!"

Yes they may, hell probably will if you go into creating a character with the soul intention of backstabbing a major faction. But that's the point of these characters' isn't it? To be a bright shining star for the few moments that you do what you gotta do, going out with a brilliant bang of awesome taking as many goody-two shoes or baddity badasses with you as you can?

In Short; Cyric and Shar have factions, as do many other deities who aren't directly tacked into the company overview of what is there. To give you some idea's on factions you might join as a Cyrist or even a Sharran, I've composed a list;

All of them.



Yeah, I realize the above doesn't mention Velsharoon. Mostly because he's Myrkul, play a Myrkulite if you wanna do the Undead thing, it fits in with the server lore better and when it comes down to it... Oh I can feel the building hate incoming... Aside from superficial differences they're pretty much the exact same.

[Satoshi]

I agree with everything except the blurb about Velsharoon being Myrkul. He's clearly a thinly-veiled attempt at an FR Vecna that fails to be as awesome.

[Kaybrie]

I'll edit this just cause it WAS a little caustic.


The gods themselves are different, but there's no reason why a character couldn't exist exactly as they are under Velsharoon as they do under say, Myrkul or Shar and have a much more applicable position in the story while effectively having done as much as change a set of letters next to 'deity' on their sheet.